The Way of Moderation has ended (page 566)

Oh, I didn't mean that... by "next stage" I meant "at the conclusion of this storywriting process". I'd ask you to read the initial pages of this thread but you might get lost, so as a summary:

The Way of Moderation is an original character tournament, but not just that, it's probably THE BIGGEST (and longest running) of its kind. But not just that either, this whole OCT is just the first stage of a larger project.

This thread is essentially a casting call, where through the story we discover characters, writers, artists etc. This is the first stage, and I'd say we're about 85% of the way through it.

My actual intention is once the story is finished, we'll remold it and work it into a computer game or even an animated series. That's the next stage, and that's the stage I'm going to need help with. I won't be introducing any new characters, though.

Oh, I didn't mean that... by "next stage" I meant "at the conclusion of this storywriting process". I'd ask you to read the initial pages of this thread but you might get lost, so as a summary:\r\n\r\n[i]The Way of Moderation[/i] is an original character tournament, but not just that, it's probably THE BIGGEST (and longest running) of its kind. But not just that either, this whole OCT is just [i]the first stage[/i] of a larger project.\r\n\r\nThis thread is essentially a casting call, where through the story we discover characters, writers, artists etc. This is the first stage, and I'd say we're about 85% of the way through it.\r\n\r\nMy actual intention is once the story is finished, we'll remold it and work it into a computer game or even an animated series. That's the next stage, and that's the stage I'm going to need help with. I won't be introducing any new characters, though.

If you had fought through as much as we have, you would see the reason why we are asking people to just be sorry they didn't actually get in during the last... Year? When did the sign-up for the cameos end? Some times before summer, I think. And the actual tournament sign-up ended last year. It's a matter of being lucky, being aware at the right time, and possibly behave properly, tired or not.

Can I still take offence, considering I wrote it? \r\n\r\n[quote]**** IT!\r\n:*([/quote]\r\nIf you had fought through as much as we have, you would see the reason why we are asking people to just be sorry they didn't actually get in during the last... Year? When did the sign-up for the cameos end? Some times before summer, I think. And the actual tournament sign-up ended last year. \r\nIt's a matter of being lucky, being aware at the right time, and possibly behave properly, tired or not.

Right so I just checked my email and got the message tell me to post this chapter.So....here ya go:

Chapter 9 and 1/2: Preparations

Crimson woke up dazed and confused. He tried opening his eyes only to have a bright light blind him."Could you turn the light off please?" He said drowsily as he shaded his eyes with his bedsheets."Good to see your able to speak" an unknown voice said."Yeah great, now could you kill the light" Crimson repeated."Fine" the unknown voice sighed. Crimson opened his eyes again to see a dark room with a window giving the only dim light into the room, shaded with a fairly thin curtain, and on the other side of the window stood the owner of the voice, who was none other then Strop himself."Thanks, I'm a little out of it, so I'm just going to assume were at the hospital? Also how long have I been asleep here?""You haven't been out long, also yes this is the Armor Hospital" Strop answered. Crimson was hoping for a more accurate report on how long he had been unconscious, but had no time to press the question as Strop was already asking his own."I just need to ask you some questions on a serious note, so long as your able to speak now""...uh...ok, sure ask away then" Crimson affirmed."First off, how quickly can you make yourself recover, and is there any way you could use your script magic to heal yourself without any damaging effects?" Strop asked. Crimson thought for a second, finding it still a little hard to do so since he was still a bit dazed from just waking up."Well I don't know....there might, but.....I don't know" Crimson tried to think of something he could do."Could you pass me my Google magic scroll, it's....where did you put all of my scrolls?" Crimson added. Strop walked out of the room, making a gesture for Crimson to wait momentarily. He laid there in silence for about a minute before Strop returned with his scrolls, laying them on a table to the left of the bed, handing the one with the Google logo on it to Crimson. Crimson opened up the scroll, and started searching for a solution, typing in a few different searches before finding something that he thought could work. He grabbed the words out of the scroll."Could you hand me a blank scroll real quick" he asked. Strop looked through the scrolls trying to find one without code written on it, handing one to Crimson. He opened the scroll, pasting the text onto it."I have no idea if this will work or not, but I might as well try" Crimson remarked. He held his right hand in a drink-holding fashion, and then made an odd gesture with left. A clear bottle appeared filled with a strange, red liquid of some sort. Crimson looked at it with hesitance, before finally opening up the bottle, and putting it up to his lips, drinking its contents, making a large gulping sound as he did so. He wait for a second to see if it had taken effect."Hmm it figures that didn't work" he groaned."What was that supposed to be anyways?" Strop asked."It was supposed to be a generic health potion, but as I guessed the magical in-game properties of the object only work on in-game objects" Crimson noted."OK, well do you know of any other solutions" Strop responded. Crimson was a bit more awake at this point, and was able to think a bit clearer. He looked back to try and figure out a proper solution. Suddenly he jumped up in excitement, and immediately falling back down in pain."I'm guessing you have an idea?" Strop commented."Yeah, something like that" Crimson said as he clutched his ribs."Basically all I have to do is become a in-game object, and then any in-game properties an object has will work on me!" Crimson explained. Strop looked at him in confusion."How exactly do you plan on doing that?" he asked curiously."Do you remember my fight with Chill?" Crimson asked rhetorically."What about it?" Strop replied."When you enter the wilderness you become a game object so you are able to react with the games in it. I exploited this to defeat Chill. If I were to use a healing object there, then it would work on me as it should" Crimson explained with excitement."So you need me to take you to the wilderness?" Strop sighed."Yeah basically" Crimson replied."Fine" Strop repeated."-but before you do that, if this works do you think you will be able to beat Leon?" Crimson hesitated for a moment before responding."If you give me a week to prepare, I can guarantee it!" He smirked as he ended. Strop gave him a quick nod, and carefully grabbed him up, using a smoke screen inside of the room for no particular reason, other then to set off the fire sprinklers.

Crimson and Strop traveled deep into the wilderness before Crimson made it clear they were at their first destination. It was the clear area that Chill and Crimson fought in before, a blank canvas for development."Here we go, now to try that spell again" Crimson grabbed the scroll out of his pocket, and made the odd gestures again. Another red potion appeared which he quickly drank. He sat there for a second before looking down and realizing that his leg was not hurting any more."Just to be sure" Crimson mumbled as he unwrapped the wrappings from his leg."It seems that did the trick" Strop noted."Yeah, hope it stays that way" Crimson retorted. Crimson paused for a moment to gather his thoughts before adding "I have a few other places to visit, though I think I can get to them by myself at this point." Strop nodded before creating another smoke screen, and disappearing.

"I have to wonder if that's really necessary sometimes." Crimson said to no one in particular. He continued on his way throughout the wilderness to gather items that would help him, including the rechargeable shield from Echoes(kind of weak, with a slow recharge) the Crimson Blade from Sonny 2, with the Demon Blade to compliment it.(dual-swords, both can be referenced in code, and summoned as such), a group of WW2 soldiers from Warfare 1944(run straight forward until they reach shooting range, and cannot shoot to the side or behind themselves, can be summoned as well), as well as some ice bombs from Crush the Castle(freezes enemy on contact, can be summoned as well),he then turned his boots into a game object allowing him to implement some of the AI from exitPath, that would allow him to sprint faster, after running for enough time(though this would likely not be used too much since he has the rocket spell still), and finally after he had collected all of this, he fixed his original Sasquatch object to be able to grab opponents once it catches up to them(attacking them would most likely lead to death after all). Once he had all of this done, he went to play Treadmillasaurus Rex so he could get in better shape, and become more agile before the fight(thats definitely the only reason I swear!). He knew that the fight with Leon would be difficult, and that he should not underestimate him, but after everything he equipped himself with at this point, Crimson was more concerned with accidentally killing him instead.

---------------------

Alright there it is, I just hope I didn't miss any smart quotes or anything.

Right so I just checked my email and got the message tell me to post this chapter.So....here ya go:\r\n\r\n[b]Chapter 9 and 1/2: Preparations[/b]\r\n\r\nCrimson woke up dazed and confused. He tried opening his eyes only to have a bright light blind him.\r\n"Could you turn the light off please?" He said drowsily as he shaded his eyes with his bedsheets.\r\n"Good to see your able to speak" an unknown voice said.\r\n"Yeah great, now could you kill the light" Crimson repeated.\r\n"Fine" the unknown voice sighed. Crimson opened his eyes again to see a dark room with a window giving the only dim light into the room, shaded with a fairly thin curtain, and on the other side of the window stood the owner of the voice, who was none other then Strop himself.\r\n"Thanks, I'm a little out of it, so I'm just going to assume were at the hospital? Also how long have I been asleep here?"\r\n"You haven't been out long, also yes this is the Armor Hospital" Strop answered. Crimson was hoping for a more accurate report on how long he had been unconscious, but had no time to press the question as Strop was already asking his own.\r\n"I just need to ask you some questions on a serious note, so long as your able to speak now"\r\n"...uh...ok, sure ask away then" Crimson affirmed.\r\n"First off, how quickly can you make yourself recover, and is there any way you could use your script magic to heal yourself without any damaging effects?" Strop asked. Crimson thought for a second, finding it still a little hard to do so since he was still a bit dazed from just waking up.\r\n"Well I don't know....there might, but.....I don't know" Crimson tried to think of something he could do.\r\n"Could you pass me my Google magic scroll, it's....where did you put all of my scrolls?" Crimson added. Strop walked out of the room, making a gesture for Crimson to wait momentarily. He laid there in silence for about a minute before Strop returned with his scrolls, laying them on a table to the left of the bed, handing the one with the Google logo on it to Crimson. Crimson opened up the scroll, and started searching for a solution, typing in a few different searches before finding something that he thought could work. He grabbed the words out of the scroll.\r\n"Could you hand me a blank scroll real quick" he asked. Strop looked through the scrolls trying to find one without code written on it, handing one to Crimson. He opened the scroll, pasting the text onto it.\r\n"I have no idea if this will work or not, but I might as well try" Crimson remarked. He held his right hand in a drink-holding fashion, and then made an odd gesture with left. A clear bottle appeared filled with a strange, red liquid of some sort. Crimson looked at it with hesitance, before finally opening up the bottle, and putting it up to his lips, drinking its contents, making a large gulping sound as he did so. He wait for a second to see if it had taken effect.\r\n"Hmm it figures that didn't work" he groaned.\r\n"What was that supposed to be anyways?" Strop asked.\r\n"It was supposed to be a generic health potion, but as I guessed the magical in-game properties of the object only work on in-game objects" Crimson noted.\r\n"OK, well do you know of any other solutions" Strop responded. Crimson was a bit more awake at this point, and was able to think a bit clearer. He looked back to try and figure out a proper solution. Suddenly he jumped up in excitement, and immediately falling back down in pain.\r\n"I'm guessing you have an idea?" Strop commented.\r\n"Yeah, something like that" Crimson said as he clutched his ribs.\r\n"Basically all I have to do is become a in-game object, and then any in-game properties an object has will work on me!" Crimson explained. Strop looked at him in confusion.\r\n"How exactly do you plan on doing that?" he asked curiously.\r\n"Do you remember my fight with Chill?" Crimson asked rhetorically.\r\n"What about it?" Strop replied.\r\n"When you enter the wilderness you become a game object so you are able to react with the games in it. I exploited this to defeat Chill. If I were to use a healing object there, then it would work on me as it should" Crimson explained with excitement.\r\n"So you need me to take you to the wilderness?" Strop sighed.\r\n"Yeah basically" Crimson replied.\r\n"Fine" Strop repeated."-but before you do that, if this works do you think you will be able to beat Leon?" Crimson hesitated for a moment before responding.\r\n"If you give me a week to prepare, I can guarantee it!" He smirked as he ended. Strop gave him a quick nod, and carefully grabbed him up, using a smoke screen inside of the room for no particular reason, other then to set off the fire sprinklers. \r\n\r\n Crimson and Strop traveled deep into the wilderness before Crimson made it clear they were at their first destination. It was the clear area that Chill and Crimson fought in before, a blank canvas for development.\r\n"Here we go, now to try that spell again" Crimson grabbed the scroll out of his pocket, and made the odd gestures again. Another red potion appeared which he quickly drank. He sat there for a second before looking down and realizing that his leg was not hurting any more.\r\n"Just to be sure" Crimson mumbled as he unwrapped the wrappings from his leg.\r\n"It seems that did the trick" Strop noted.\r\n"Yeah, hope it stays that way" Crimson retorted. Crimson paused for a moment to gather his thoughts before adding "I have a few other places to visit, though I think I can get to them by myself at this point." Strop nodded before creating another smoke screen, and disappearing.\r\n\r\n"I have to wonder if that's really necessary sometimes." Crimson said to no one in particular. He continued on his way throughout the wilderness to gather items that would help him, including the rechargeable shield from Echoes(kind of weak, with a slow recharge) the Crimson Blade from Sonny 2, with the Demon Blade to compliment it.(dual-swords, both can be referenced in code, and summoned as such), a group of WW2 soldiers from Warfare 1944(run straight forward until they reach shooting range, and cannot shoot to the side or behind themselves, can be summoned as well), as well as some ice bombs from Crush the Castle(freezes enemy on contact, can be summoned as well),he then turned his boots into a game object allowing him to implement some of the AI from exitPath, that would allow him to sprint faster, after running for enough time(though this would likely not be used too much since he has the rocket spell still), and finally after he had collected all of this, he fixed his original Sasquatch object to be able to grab opponents once it catches up to them(attacking them would most likely lead to death after all). Once he had all of this done, he went to play Treadmillasaurus Rex so he could get in better shape, and become more agile before the fight(thats definitely the only reason I swear!). He knew that the fight with Leon would be difficult, and that he should not underestimate him, but after everything he equipped himself with at this point, Crimson was more concerned with accidentally killing him instead. \r\n\r\n---------------------\r\n\r\nAlright there it is, I just hope I didn't miss any smart quotes or anything.

The broom closet was dimly lit. Light beamed in through the hole which was likely to be considered a "window" in the upper right corner. There was only a bit of light coming in from the square porthole. The light directly hit Thoad on his abdomen and his arms. Brooms, mops and buckets were all piled up in a corner, with a wooden chair by the bed. Despite being a broom closet filled with cleaning supplies, the room smelt like doctors office, rather than a cleaning supply.Thoad drowsily awoke from a nap. He hadn't had any visitors for a while, and he was a little sad by it. "Man, I'm not SPESHUL enough to get visitors, huh?" He asked himself, not accounting the fact that people could probably still hear him. The broom-closet-kateer remembered that he woke up just a few hours ago. He wonders how he had gotten here, and what had happened. "Oh yeah! The round... D*mnit I forgot if I won..." he mused.Just then, Strop came in in his doctors outfit. He gave a courteous hello and sat on the wooden chair that was next to Thoad's hospital bed. Thoad said hello back and stared up at the ceiling. A nice white-gray with cracks in it. This broom closet had class."So, Strop, I have a few questions for a Doctor like yourself," Thoad started to talk. "I seem to feel my brains. I'm 99% sure that this is not normal. What happened?" he asked. A dim smile spread across his face. He was focused on the now, and not the past."Well, half of your skull is in a freezer. We had to drain-" Strop was cut off by Thoad."So half of my head is in the fridge?" Thoad asked calmly. He was so tired from being still for so long. His physical capacity must have dropped quite a bit."Uh... yeah, kind of," Strop said to him."Right then. It also feels like there's a stick up my wiener. What have you been doing you sick little pony?" Thoad continued to question Strop.Strop had a blank, Cen-like face when Thoad made his remark. "There's a tube up your wee-wee, Thoad. It was needed. We need to keep a close monitor on you after all," Strop explained the reason for the wee-wee tube in depth. Thoad had heard it from his mother (who was a nurse), but had simply forgot.Thoad coughed, trying to be melodramatic. As if the bed he was lying in what was going to be his deathbed. This, of course, wasn't true. Though the injuries were severe, they weren't fatal. Or rather, they would have been fatal if Strop didn't interject like he did. Thoad and Strop had just sat (or in Thoad's case, lied) there for a few more minutes. The awkwardness of it all started to hit Thoad.Strop was the one to break the silence. "So Thoad. What exactly do you remember of the last round?" he asked. Thoad lied there for a minute and thought exactly what he DID remember. Bits and pieces, gists, just certain things."Oh man, I can barely even remember, I don't even know where to begin," Thoad said, his face bemused.Strop told Thoad in a serious tone, "Start from the beginning Thoad, C'mon.""Fine fine, we were all in the ballroom. It was the great ballroom of ArmorCastle... oh how much I'd love to live there-" Thoad realized he was starting to go off track, "And you jumped us all with a, 'OKAI NAO YOO GAIZ FIGHT NOW LOLOL', and so we did. I remember doing a somersault backflip to Crimsonblade, and then asking him to join me in my epic battle to defeat Frank and Leon as I smoked a cigar, but he declined, saying I was too awesome to be his partner. So I scoffed at him and went with frank..." Thoad felt a pain in his brain. It was odd having a headache with no scalp. Like, really odd.Strop only said "mhmm" to Thoad, despite Thoad doing a half-diss on him. "So then, I remember a hyena. The cheapest f*cking hyena I ever dun saw. I think it was Leon's.. yeah, I'm almost certain it was. Leon hid somewhere while his hyena ripped me to shreds. I... I think I ended up shooting him in the head... wait, no, it survived. I'm not sure. Well, one way or another, leon was out. That just left-" Thoad's head was hurting. He didn't want to think at the second, just rest. But, he felt speshul because Strop wanted to see him, so he continued anyway, "Then there was crimson. He made a huge bunny thing. It was really tough..." Thoad continued after a minute, "And then crimson came after me and... I think I won? Or..." Thoad's eyes began to widen. "I.. I didn't win. I didn't win at all. I lost..."Thoad began to form tears. He was about to sob, when he realized something. "Wait! No, I didn't lose! The round is still going, right? I never said I surrender!" Thoad had the tone of desperation in his voice. He wanted to be in denial, but his skeptic mind wouldn't let him.Strop had to make sure that Thoad would get through grief as fast as possible, and told him, "No, Thoad. You lost. Besides, even if the round was still going, it would be Crimson here, putting his blade to your throat telling you to surrender. You lost." This only brought Thoad to a more crushing position. Strop, the closest thing he had to a father figure, had just told him that he had lost. Thoad interpreted it as "You'll never be a mod.".Thoad was filled with panic and fear. He can't think straight, he doesn't even remember that there was a tube up his pee-hole and that half of his skull was in the fridge. He starts to go into a meltdown. Thoad raised his left arm (the good one) and dropped it down onto his bed, making a thump. He muttered "D*mmit" every time he does this. The thumping turned to pounding, and he began to raise his voice. The pounding eventually grows to a point where someone in the other room could here. Suddenly, Thoad made a fist and punched the concrete wall next to him, yelling "D*MMIT!" while doing so. The tears still ran down his face as his rage doesn't allow him to feel the pain and possible damage he had done to himself... and the wall, which was developing a few new cracks.Strop, seeing that this might get out of hand, held Thoad's arms down, as Thoad yelled expletives and carried on through his meltdown. He was in a trance-like state, not caring about the now, the future, only focusing that he lost, and that he thought he'd never become a mod. He had thought- no, he knew- that this was his only chance. The only chance in which me might finally reach his goal. The goal he had dreamt of ever since he began being a regular in the ArmorGames forums.Thoad eventually began to calm down, though he never stopped crying. He just wanted to sit there and cry. He felt like running away from the scene, like an angsty teen would do. Thankfully, due to a couple of years of zombie survival, he manages to calm down. His arms are still shaking, but Strop felt he could let go. The green clad teen closed his eyes, and frowned. He started to snivel a bit. "Do you know why the Way of Moderation was going to be the only sure-fire way to get me into mod-dom? Do you, Strop?" Thoad asked, his eyes shimmering with tears.Strop had an idea why, but he felt that he shouldn't say it. Instead, he simply said, "No, Thoad, I don't."Thoad then explained, whilst staring up at the concrete ceiling. He began with a small sob, "So you don't know why I am an immature little prick, eh? I figured you would have known." Thoad was thinking of Emo music while he spoke, "I hate my life, Strop. I have no future, I hate the people around me. I'm a perverted *sshole who will die alone. I know I will. I..." Thoad was having a tiny bit of trouble opening up, "I know that the only way I could possibly stand life, was to make myself something I wasn't. I am still a perverted asshole, but I do my best to be happy." Thoad pointed down to the LoLWhut logo on his shirt. "See this, Strop? It's the epitome of what I want to be, what I am at this moment. Borderline insane, overloaded with happy. Yet I am homocidal, or even suicidal. I use my immaturity to cover up the life I hate."Thoad was calming down, going into a semi-depressed, semi-apathetic state of mind. "I don't want to be here. On earth, I mean. I don't want anything to do with it. But I'm stuck. So I try to cover up my hatred for myself and the earth with this," Thoad tapped at the logo of LoLWhut Inc. on his shirt. He looks at strop, directly in the eyes. He tries to have a connecting moment with him, though he couldn't tell if it worked or not. "And now, now that the Moderation Wheel will be up after this, and now that the Way of Moderation is nearing it's closing moments..." Thoad put his left arm up to his eyes, and wiped off the tears."It's crushed me, Strop. I haven't felt this bad since... I haven't had a punch to the soul since..." Thoad looked back on his life in AG, trying to remember. "I haven't had a punch to the soul since Zophia became a mod. I'm not sure if I showed it to you and Zoph and Cen, but I was crushed. I was depressed for about a week," Thoad stopped and took a long breathe. "I couldn't stop thinking about it. The person I had considered my rival had beaten me to my dream. My own dream, Strop. " Thoad took a gulp and continued on with his monologue. "Has that ever happened to you, Strop? I've been shot down by women, I've been hit by my own mother, my father has insulted me and called me names, as well as told me I'm worthless... but this. The loss, the crushing of my heart... It was just as bad, if not worse."So that's why I can't be a mod. It hurts me, Strop. It really does. I don't think life will ever get better for me, so I'll be stuck. I'll be stuck in this form of hate and self-loathing for ever," Thoad ended his monologue. The next 20 minutes felt like an eternity of waiting. The green clad zombie slayer wasn't crying as much, and was in a pure apathetic state. He wanted to leave. He wanted to go away, find a tree to sit under, and grow up. He had known that he couldn't. It would have just been an immature and wussy move to begin with.Strop took a deep breathe in, hearing Thoad's sad story. He didn't announce any of his own thoughts about what Thoad said, and simply asked, "Thoad, what exactly do you think the Way of Moderation is?"Thoad didn't even think about a higher meaning to the question, and said, "The Way of Moderation... The tournament itself is an overly long and overly complicated series of tests in order to find out who is suitable for moderating the forums, right?" Thoad didn't wait for an answer and went ot the next subject, "As for what the actual Way of Moderation, the code by which a moderator goes by, I would say it's to uphold the law of the forums, to make sure people aren't doing anything outside of what they should be, and most of all..." Thoad made a pause for a moment to recollect exactly why he wanted to be a mod, "to make the site a better and more fun place for all. The exact thing I dreamt of since I came on the forums... to make AG a better place."Strop made a cryptic remark after Thoad's speech. He did a horse-huff (OOC: You know, that thing where the horse is like "HUFF") just before he began, "You'll know what it is when you know what it is." Thoad gave strop a slight scowl, making it clear to him that he thought that was a cop-out answer. Strop had to remark on Thoad's performance so far, "You know, Thoad. I'm pretty impressed that you made it this far," Strop's voice wasn't monotone, but it wasn't exactly full of emotion, either. It was something of a respectful tone. "In fact, I"m impressed that you're alive right now. Your tenacity seems to get in front of your patience," Strop paused, to think about what he'd say, "but, I think that that will end up getting a lot better as you grow older." Thoad was slightly cheered up by being admired by Strop, but he was still incredibly depressed.Strop felt that this moment needed a mood lightener desperately, so he mentioned something. He pointed at Thoad's right arm, which was full of metal pins. "By the way, that arm with all the metal pins in it, it's going to need physiotherapy."Thoad looked at Strop with a blank face, "You mean physical therapy? What should I be doing, doctor?"Strop made a small smile under his mask, "You'll probably need to vigorously work it three times a day for several weeks."Thoad smiled himself, "You realize that you're talking to someone who is 'bigger' than you, and manages to shoot kittens, right?"Strop made a Cen trademarked T T face, and monotonously said: "I'm a horse, Thoad, we've been over this before."

[b]Cen's Sadfaic is slightly bigger than mine- Round 9 1/2 Preperations[/b]\r\n\r\n The broom closet was dimly lit. Light beamed in through the hole which was likely to be considered a "window" in the upper right corner. There was only a bit of light coming in from the square porthole. The light directly hit Thoad on his abdomen and his arms. Brooms, mops and buckets were all piled up in a corner, with a wooden chair by the bed. Despite being a broom closet filled with cleaning supplies, the room smelt like doctors office, rather than a cleaning supply.\r\n Thoad drowsily awoke from a nap. He hadn't had any visitors for a while, and he was a little sad by it. "Man, I'm not SPESHUL enough to get visitors, huh?" He asked himself, not accounting the fact that people could probably still hear him. The broom-closet-kateer remembered that he woke up just a few hours ago. He wonders how he had gotten here, and what had happened. "Oh yeah! The round... D*mnit I forgot if I won..." he mused.\r\n Just then, Strop came in in his doctors outfit. He gave a courteous hello and sat on the wooden chair that was next to Thoad's hospital bed. Thoad said hello back and stared up at the ceiling. A nice white-gray with cracks in it. This broom closet had class.\r\n "So, Strop, I have a few questions for a Doctor like yourself," Thoad started to talk. "I seem to feel my brains. I'm 99% sure that this is not normal. What happened?" he asked. A dim smile spread across his face. He was focused on the now, and not the past.\r\n "Well, half of your skull is in a freezer. We had to drain-" Strop was cut off by Thoad.\r\n "So half of my head is in the fridge?" Thoad asked calmly. He was so tired from being still for so long. His physical capacity must have dropped quite a bit.\r\n "Uh... yeah, kind of," Strop said to him.\r\n "Right then. It also feels like there's a stick up my wiener. What have you been doing you sick little pony?" Thoad continued to question Strop.\r\n Strop had a blank, Cen-like face when Thoad made his remark. "There's a tube up your wee-wee, Thoad. It was needed. We need to keep a close monitor on you after all," Strop explained the reason for the wee-wee tube in depth. Thoad had heard it from his mother (who was a nurse), but had simply forgot.\r\n Thoad coughed, trying to be melodramatic. As if the bed he was lying in what was going to be his deathbed. This, of course, wasn't true. Though the injuries were severe, they weren't fatal. Or rather, they would have been fatal if Strop didn't interject like he did. Thoad and Strop had just sat (or in Thoad's case, lied) there for a few more minutes. The awkwardness of it all started to hit Thoad.\r\n Strop was the one to break the silence. "So Thoad. What exactly do you remember of the last round?" he asked. Thoad lied there for a minute and thought exactly what he DID remember. Bits and pieces, gists, just certain things.\r\n "Oh man, I can barely even remember, I don't even know where to begin," Thoad said, his face bemused.\r\n Strop told Thoad in a serious tone, "Start from the beginning Thoad, C'mon."\r\n "Fine fine, we were all in the ballroom. It was the great ballroom of ArmorCastle... oh how much I'd love to live there-" Thoad realized he was starting to go off track, "And you jumped us all with a, 'OKAI NAO YOO GAIZ FIGHT NOW LOLOL', and so we did. I remember doing a somersault backflip to Crimsonblade, and then asking him to join me in my epic battle to defeat Frank and Leon as I smoked a cigar, but he declined, saying I was too awesome to be his partner. So I scoffed at him and went with frank..." Thoad felt a pain in his brain. It was odd having a headache with no scalp. Like, really odd.\r\n Strop only said "mhmm" to Thoad, despite Thoad doing a half-diss on him. "So then, I remember a hyena. The cheapest f*cking hyena I ever dun saw. I think it was Leon's.. yeah, I'm almost certain it was. Leon hid somewhere while his hyena ripped me to shreds. I... I think I ended up shooting him in the head... wait, no, it survived. I'm not sure. Well, one way or another, leon was out. That just left-" Thoad's head was hurting. He didn't want to think at the second, just rest. But, he felt speshul because Strop wanted to see him, so he continued anyway, "Then there was crimson. He made a huge bunny thing. It was really tough..." Thoad continued after a minute, "And then crimson came after me and... I think I won? Or..." Thoad's eyes began to widen. "I.. I didn't win. I didn't win at all. I lost..."\r\n Thoad began to form tears. He was about to sob, when he realized something. "Wait! No, I didn't lose! The round is still going, right? I never said I surrender!" Thoad had the tone of desperation in his voice. He wanted to be in denial, but his skeptic mind wouldn't let him.\r\n Strop had to make sure that Thoad would get through grief as fast as possible, and told him, "No, Thoad. You lost. Besides, even if the round was still going, it would be Crimson here, putting his blade to your throat telling you to surrender. You lost." This only brought Thoad to a more crushing position. Strop, the closest thing he had to a father figure, had just told him that he had lost. Thoad interpreted it as "You'll never be a mod.".\r\n Thoad was filled with panic and fear. He can't think straight, he doesn't even remember that there was a tube up his pee-hole and that half of his skull was in the fridge. He starts to go into a meltdown. Thoad raised his left arm (the good one) and dropped it down onto his bed, making a thump. He muttered "D*mmit" every time he does this. The thumping turned to pounding, and he began to raise his voice. The pounding eventually grows to a point where someone in the other room could here. Suddenly, Thoad made a fist and punched the concrete wall next to him, yelling "D*MMIT!" while doing so. The tears still ran down his face as his rage doesn't allow him to feel the pain and possible damage he had done to himself... and the wall, which was developing a few new cracks.\r\n Strop, seeing that this might get out of hand, held Thoad's arms down, as Thoad yelled expletives and carried on through his meltdown. He was in a trance-like state, not caring about the now, the future, only focusing that he lost, and that he thought he'd never become a mod. He had thought- no, he [i]knew[/i]- that this was his only chance. The only chance in which me might finally reach his goal. The goal he had dreamt of ever since he began being a regular in the ArmorGames forums.\r\n Thoad eventually began to calm down, though he never stopped crying. He just wanted to sit there and cry. He felt like running away from the scene, like an angsty teen would do. Thankfully, due to a couple of years of zombie survival, he manages to calm down. His arms are still shaking, but Strop felt he could let go. The green clad teen closed his eyes, and frowned. He started to snivel a bit. "Do you know why the Way of Moderation was going to be the only sure-fire way to get me into mod-dom? Do you, Strop?" Thoad asked, his eyes shimmering with tears.\r\n Strop had an idea why, but he felt that he shouldn't say it. Instead, he simply said, "No, Thoad, I don't."\r\n Thoad then explained, whilst staring up at the concrete ceiling. He began with a small sob, "So you don't know why I am an immature little prick, eh? I figured you would have known." Thoad was thinking of Emo music while he spoke, "I hate my life, Strop. I have no future, I hate the people around me. I'm a perverted *sshole who will die alone. I know I will. I..." Thoad was having a tiny bit of trouble opening up, "I know that the only way I could possibly stand life, was to make myself something I wasn't. I am still a perverted asshole, but I do my best to be happy." Thoad pointed down to the LoLWhut logo on his shirt. "See this, Strop? It's the epitome of what I want to be, what I am at this moment. Borderline insane, overloaded with happy. Yet I am homocidal, or even suicidal. I use my immaturity to cover up the life I hate."\r\n Thoad was calming down, going into a semi-depressed, semi-apathetic state of mind. "I don't want to be here. On earth, I mean. I don't want anything to do with it. But I'm stuck. So I try to cover up my hatred for myself and the earth with this," Thoad tapped at the logo of LoLWhut Inc. on his shirt. He looks at strop, directly in the eyes. He tries to have a connecting moment with him, though he couldn't tell if it worked or not. "And now, now that the Moderation Wheel will be up after this, and now that the Way of Moderation is nearing it's closing moments..." Thoad put his left arm up to his eyes, and wiped off the tears.\r\n "It's crushed me, Strop. I haven't felt this bad since... I haven't had a punch to the soul since..." Thoad looked back on his life in AG, trying to remember. "I haven't had a punch to the soul since Zophia became a mod. I'm not sure if I showed it to you and Zoph and Cen, but I was crushed. I was depressed for about a week," Thoad stopped and took a long breathe. "I couldn't stop thinking about it. The person I had considered my rival had beaten me to my dream. My own dream, Strop. " Thoad took a gulp and continued on with his monologue. "Has that ever happened to you, Strop? I've been shot down by women, I've been hit by my own mother, my father has insulted me and called me names, as well as told me I'm worthless... but this. The loss, the crushing of my heart... It was just as bad, if not worse."\r\n So that's why I can't be a mod. It hurts me, Strop. It really does. I don't think life will ever get better for me, so I'll be stuck. I'll be stuck in this form of hate and self-loathing for ever," Thoad ended his monologue. The next 20 minutes felt like an eternity of waiting. The green clad zombie slayer wasn't crying as much, and was in a pure apathetic state. He wanted to leave. He wanted to go away, find a tree to sit under, and grow up. He had known that he couldn't. It would have just been an immature and wussy move to begin with.\r\n Strop took a deep breathe in, hearing Thoad's sad story. He didn't announce any of his own thoughts about what Thoad said, and simply asked, "Thoad, what exactly do you think the Way of Moderation is?"\r\n Thoad didn't even think about a higher meaning to the question, and said, "The Way of Moderation... The tournament itself is an overly long and overly complicated series of tests in order to find out who is suitable for moderating the forums, right?" Thoad didn't wait for an answer and went ot the next subject, "As for what the actual Way of Moderation, the code by which a moderator goes by, I would say it's to uphold the law of the forums, to make sure people aren't doing anything outside of what they should be, and most of all..." Thoad made a pause for a moment to recollect exactly why he wanted to be a mod, "to make the site a better and more fun place for all. The exact thing I dreamt of since I came on the forums... to make AG a better place."\r\n Strop made a cryptic remark after Thoad's speech. He did a horse-huff (OOC: You know, that thing where the horse is like "HUFF") just before he began, "You'll know what it is when you know what it is." Thoad gave strop a slight scowl, making it clear to him that he thought that was a cop-out answer. \r\nStrop had to remark on Thoad's performance so far, "You know, Thoad. I'm pretty impressed that you made it this far," Strop's voice wasn't monotone, but it wasn't exactly full of emotion, either. It was something of a respectful tone. "In fact, I"m impressed that you're alive right now. Your tenacity seems to get in front of your patience," Strop paused, to think about what he'd say, "but, I think that that will end up getting a lot better as you grow older." Thoad was slightly cheered up by being admired by Strop, but he was still incredibly depressed.\r\n Strop felt that this moment needed a mood lightener desperately, so he mentioned something. He pointed at Thoad's right arm, which was full of metal pins. "By the way, that arm with all the metal pins in it, it's going to need physiotherapy."\r\n Thoad looked at Strop with a blank face, "You mean physical therapy? What should I be doing, doctor?"\r\n Strop made a small smile under his mask, "You'll probably need to vigorously work it three times a day for several weeks."\r\n Thoad smiled himself, "You realize that you're talking to someone who is 'bigger' than you, and manages to shoot kittens, right?"\r\n Strop made a Cen trademarked T T face, and monotonously said: "I'm a horse, Thoad, we've been over this before."

Awesome timing, I just popped on a few minutes ago to check whether this had been updated.

Note to self: remember to replace Thoad's skull sometime or his brains are gonna be hanging out of his head like that crazy dude in Bad Taste...

When I get back from work I'll submit the next section. Note, it's... well, long. It may not fit into a single forum post. So better find your reading glasses!

Awesome timing, I just popped on a few minutes ago to check whether this had been updated.\r\n\r\nNote to self: remember to replace Thoad's skull sometime or his brains are gonna be hanging out of his head like that crazy dude in [i]Bad Taste[/i]...\r\n\r\nWhen I get back from work I'll submit the next section. Note, it's... well, long. It may not fit into a single forum post. So better find your reading glasses!

"You'll probably need to vigorously work it three times a day for several weeks."

That was actually sad. I teared up a bit there. Good job conveying emotion.

I find Thoad's wish to cover up the horrors of life with manic happiness particularly interesting... could make an important plot point later. I hope he gets over it, because whatever he is, I'm pretty sure he doesn't want to be Leon McAcid.

[quote]"You'll probably need to vigorously work it three times a day for several weeks."[/quote] :D\r\n\r\nThat was actually sad. I teared up a bit there. Good job conveying emotion.\r\n\r\nI find Thoad's wish to cover up the horrors of life with manic happiness particularly interesting... could make an important plot point later. I hope he gets over it, because whatever he is, I'm pretty sure he doesn't want to be Leon McAcid.

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